Wisconsin or WashU?

Mythreesons
Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:42:49 +0000

I’ve got kids at both:

1. The WashU student body, on average, is at a considerably higher level. Thus, your classmates will, on average, be more intense and more talented. WashU is more of a pre-professional place than a pre-PhD place, however. There are, of course, plenty of very bright kids at Wisconsin, but your typical peer will be diffferent. You have to decide if this is important.

2. UW has the college football, campus town feel. WashU is a smaller, very lovely, campus, on the edge of an urban area. You get all that St. Louis as to provide, but it is more the bubble feel then the Madison campus town feel. My son at WashU would have loved the big time football atmosphere.

3. Small schools have better advising, if that’s important.

4. All schools have plenty of partying for those that want, but I think Madison has a bit more of a party culture. Not to say there aren’t plenty who work extremely hard, but on average, there is more going on at Madison.

Bottom line is that you can get a great education at each. The two big differences, I think, are the overall caliber of the student body, and the difference between a medium sized school and a large,big ten university.

You can’t make a bad choice; just try to pick where you think you’ll be happier.